Agricultural practices over the last several decades have changed from complete, deep or broadcast tillage prior to planting to strip-till or direct (no-till) planting. Tillage passes provide relatively smooth, non-compacted and generally uniform soil and crop residue conditions to facilitate uniform seed depth and placement during planting. However, this approach is expensive, time consuming and results in increased erosion from both rain and wind and runs counter to current federal government restrictions requiring that a certain amount of ground cover remain in place at all times in fields. The more recent approach of direct planting results in reduced erosion and reduced costs in terms of fuel required to operate the field preparation and planting machinery. Planting in undisturbed soil and residue conditions is often less amenable to ensuring uniform seed depth and placement. However, the no-till or minimum till approach results in field and soil conditions which are less amenable to the planting of crops. For example, the field surface cover is typically non-uniform and the increased crop residue remaining in the no-till or minimum till fields is more likely to result in fouling of the planting implements and non-uniformity in the depth, spacing and alignment of the rows of planted seed. Crop debris clearing devices have been developed to address these planting problems.
Conventional crop debris clearing devices typically include one or more wheels, frequently having teeth on their outer periphery, in combination with coulters which engage the soil and reduce debris such as mulch and plant stalks to small pieces to facilitate mixing the crop debris with the soil and clearing the debris from the areas in which row crops such as corn are to be planted. The combination of these rotating wheels and coulters engage the soil to cut and plow residue out from in front of the planter during the planting operation. It is important to precisely control the depth and seed spacing of these soil-engaging implements so that they effectively reduce and remove the crop residue while optimizing plant emergence and growth and minimizing the disruption of the soil for economic and government regulation compliance purposes. In addition, the crop residue clearing device should be drawn through the field in a manner which allows it to quickly deflect upon impact with an obstruction in the field to avoid damage to or destruction of the device, while being urged downwardly with sufficient force to engage and reduce crop residue in the field. Moreover, each crop residue clearing device should be mounted to the agricultural implement so as not to interfere with the positioning and operation of the seed planting devices which are also mounted to the agricultural implement. Finally, the operating parameters of individual crop debris clearing devices should be adjustable to accommodate differences between the soil conditions associated with each row crop position. These and more features are provided in a row crop debris clearing device in accordance with the present invention.